Set me straight

Having a miata identity crisis. I love my '99. It's a solid car, no issues. Thanks to MR BRG it's making good power in N/A trim with an MS2 ECU. However, I'm getting to the point where I'm wondering if I wouldn't be better off with a pre-OBD-II NA car. The benefit of course being that I can do whatever I want with the car ECU-and-FI-wise and not have to deal with OBD-II. Curious to hear people's thoughts one way or the other. Would you sell a nice NB in favor of an NA? If I make the swap, the Xidas would either be coming with me or the buyer will have to fork over some serious $$ to keep them...

Having the OBD 1 cars are definitely an advantage when you have to pass the smog test. My 94 will be for sale in about 5 years. ;-)

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Originally Posted by motorollow

Having the OBD 1 cars are definitely an advantage when you have to pass the smog test. My 94 will be for sale in about 5 years. ;-)

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With OBDI Miata you have to run the gerbil wheel wheel of doom and they are taking actual tailpipe reading!

On my OBDII Miata they plug it in and if they get an all clear they slap on a sticker.

Seems to me the OBDII is easier.

My '94 (OBDI) should be listed on the classifieds any day.

OBD II is not easier for stand alone ECU and FI :)

Having a factory turbo NB, I feel your pains, I'm stuck with bandaids if I want to keep the car street legal, or deal with injectors and ECU removal every year. If I were to do it again I would probably have started with a 94/95 NA. If you tune your car right, putting it on the rollers for emissions checks should be no big deal.

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Originally Posted by MoonieGT

OBD II is not easier for stand alone ECU and FI :)

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But OBDI still has to pass a real emissions test and a stock miata that isn't 100% can be on the hairy edge of that test.

Your best bet it to move to a county that doesn't do emissions testing then you can do whatever you want! ::Banana::

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Originally Posted by BigDmiata

If I were to do it again I would probably have started with a 94/95 NA.

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I'm definitely of that mind now, but it's too little too late. The question is should I change course or deal with the extra effort of pulling the ECU every year? If I go FI, then it's ECU and Injectors every year. And actually, I'll have to pull the wide band out as it sits now, but I'll probably get a second bung put in the header to put an end to that at some point...

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

But OBDI still has to pass a real emissions test and a stock miata that isn't 100% can be on the hairy edge of that test.

Your best bet it to move to a county that doesn't do emissions testing then you can do whatever you want! ::Banana::

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But they are talking about modified Miatas, specifically adding FI and a full ECU. Owning 2 ODBI Miatas, one stock and one with FI and ECU, I can tell you the modded one does MUCH better on the rollers than the stock one every year. I hear the same thing from every other modified owner... A tuned aftermarket ECUs just plain runs cleaner.

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Originally Posted by MoonieGT

I'm definitely of that mind now, but it's too little too late...

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The great thing about NA and NB miatas is that you can swap a fair amount from one to the other. Also you will likely not be out a ton of money swapping down to an NA (generally cheaper than an NB) As for the ECU, I'm sure it can be converted over to work with the NA.

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Originally Posted by MoonieGT

Would you sell a nice NB in favor of an NA?

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I did. And I don't regret it. I never had any trouble getting my NB inspected. Then again, it was on piggybacks and never a full stand-alone.

I'll be in the same boat as you in a couple months. I have always had good luck finding "a guy" when it comes to getting a sticker on a highly modified car.

I often wonder why you guys with this issue don't just register the car at an address in a rural county. I'll bet you know or are related to someone who lives in a non-smog county. Hell, for $1k or less, but a 1/2 acre somewhere and you can legally do so. I own 10 acres out in Brewster Co near Big Bend, and that's what I did to title my 47 Chevy truck.

That's what I've been considering doing so I can just swap to a megasquirt and be done with it, my F350 is already registered in Hunt Co.

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Originally Posted by OZMDD

I often wonder why you guys with this issue don't just register the car at an address in a rural county. I'll bet you know or are related to someone who lives in a non-smog county. Hell, for $1k or less, but a 1/2 acre somewhere and you can legally do so. I own 10 acres out in Brewster Co near Big Bend, and that's what I did to title my 47 Chevy truck.

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I looked in to this a while back and it is getting harder to pull off. As of last year, there is a few new laws in Texas that indirectly messes with this. One law states that to get a homestead exemption on your property taxes, your property address must mach your drivers license address and car registration address. So you loose out on your homestead exemption by doing the remote registration. Then there another law requiring the drivers license and car registration addresses to be synced. So... even if you are willing to give up the homestead exemption, your can then get called for Jury Duty in the remote county because of the drivers license address change. Stupid loophole closing politicians. It isn't clear to me if you can get away with it if you own multiple vehicles registered to different addresses.

Yeah, it worked for me with the title, but it was my 4th vehicle. If you are trying to do it with your primary/only vehicle, it could be tough.

Just get a '90 and in 3yrs it will be Antique. No Inspection required.

just gotta get my 90 can pass 2 more times... lol....

I kicked myself for buying a 96. Pulling out the standalone and reconnecting the OEM computer and various sensors every year was no fun- especially when the readiness codes were hesitant to clear. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about it anymore, but I can't drive it on the street anymore, either!

Unless it's an unmolested DD, I wouldn't have an OBDII car. Yes, you have to worry about the hamster-roller test, but a it's not a problem if you know the right guy - or if you can tweak your tune for "inspection" mode. My car passed just fine with the standalone hooked up... but then again, I know a guy. ;)

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Originally Posted by Rogue

Just get a '90 and in 3yrs it will be Antique. No Inspection required.

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Welcome to my life.

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Originally Posted by trickyrix

Unless it's an unmolested DD, I wouldn't have an OBDII car. Yes, you have to worry about the hamster-roller test, but a it's not a problem if you know the right guy - or if you can tweak your tune for "inspection" mode. My car passed just fine with the standalone hooked up... but then again, I know a guy. ;)

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did it go on the rollers?

Took it back this morning and left a little gift on the console... it passed just fine (ahem). Last week everything looked good except the NOx. Never could get my serial-USB dongle to talk to MS, but I have that new spark table all ready to go for next year if I need it.

It doesn't hurt to know a guy if you have IT problems. ::Banana::

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Originally Posted by trickyrix

My car passed just fine with the standalone hooked up... but then again, I know a guy. ;)

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So in other words, it didn't pass just fine.... you greased the way.... cheater ::BaHump::

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Originally Posted by sxk122

So in other words, it didn't pass just fine.... you greased the way.... cheater ::BaHump::

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...aaaaand what's wrong with that? ::EvilBana

However... an OBD-I car can be made to pass the sniffer if you can tweak the tune a bit. With an OBD-II car, you're SOL unless you swap back to the stock computer or find some kind of Atari 2600 emulator or something. :rolleyes:

I'll need the addy of your place, cuz i'm not going back where i've been the last couple years after last years fiasco.

Sent you a PM.

Didn't that place bitch and moan about your steering wheel???

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Originally Posted by Titus

But they are talking about modified Miatas, specifically adding FI and a full ECU. Owning 2 ODBI Miatas, one stock and one with FI and ECU, I can tell you the modded one does MUCH better on the rollers than the stock one every year. I hear the same thing from every other modified owner... A tuned aftermarket ECUs just plain runs cleaner.

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Yep. See it all the time.

OBDII monitors way more than OBDI cars. It's way easy to get a CEL with FI miatas. Forget aftermarket ECU's as they will not "plug in" at the inspection stations so you are left with swapping the ECU back to stock. Then the stock ECU will not like your larger injectors, mid-pipe and who knows what else so every year you must swap a bunch of parts to get the all clear from the inspection station.

Now look at an OBDI car. Sure you have to pass a sniffer test but all you need to do is run an aftermarket ECU and load a "clean running" map. You can make it run cleaner than a Prius!

Heavily leaning towards putting my NB up for sale at the end of the month...

Plus with a 90, only 3 more emission tests then we are free!!!!:burnrubr:

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Originally Posted by black roadster

Now look at an OBDI car. Sure you have to pass a sniffer test but all you need to do is run an aftermarket ECU and load a "clean running" map. You can make it run cleaner than a Prius!

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The only thing that causes difficulty on inspections is NOx on batch-fire cars because we have to run them with ~17* of spark angle at idle to get them to behave reasonable. On sequential cars I run ~11* of spark angle and the cars pass the sniffer just fine. Sometimes they pass low and high-speed tests with 15.4:1 AFR, most of the time I adjust the AFR table (with EGO authority at 20%) to 14.7 and they pass just fine.

When my car had the turbo, it once passed inspection on the rollers with no cat, lol. Now that it's 11.5:1 there is no way in hell that car would ever pass the sniffer, NOx overload.

At what point does it become a problem with getting CELs on OBDII cars? You guys are starting to make me regret my relatively recent purchase of a 97. How much reliable non-CEL (stock or piggyback ECU) power can you get out of OBDII?